


south of eden

by Gavroche_A



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crowley Has Chronic Pain (Good Omens), Crowley Has PTSD (Good Omens), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Scene: Garden of Eden (Good Omens), Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-15 04:02:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20859914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gavroche_A/pseuds/Gavroche_A
Summary: after eden, crawly lets it slip that there's an unarmed angel roaming earth. some demons think it's a good opportunity to show heaven just what the fallen think of their former siblings.





	south of eden

_ He gave it away. _

It’s all Crawly can think about on the long trip back down to Hell. The first rain has softened Eden’s soil, and its damp slide against his scales makes him miss the angel’s wing shielding him from the cold shower. Even after only one, Crawly has decided he does not like rain.

The chill doesn’t leave him, even when he lands in Hell and shifts back into his human corporation to avoid being trampled in the dark shuffle of demons filling the cramped hallways. It’s always been cold Down Here, at least in Crawly’s experience. The fires of Hell burn icy and sharp. 

Not at all like the flames licking along the angel’s blade. It had looked so pleasantly warm, even from a distance. For a moment, Crawly allows himself to wonder if the angel would have offered it to him, to warm himself, if he had asked. After all, he had given it away to the humans. 

A smile that is most definitely  _ not  _ soft twitches on Crawly’s lips. Stays a moment too long, long enough for another demon stumbling by, Hastur, he thinks he calls himself, to catch it. 

“And what are you smiling about?”

Crawly winces and drops his head. This isn’t the kind of thing he needs to be drawing attention for, not Down Here. “Nothing. Sod off.” He tries to slip away into the throng.

Another demon appears on Crawly’s other side. He’s seen him with Hastur often, thinks they’re as close to friends as demons can be. Ligur. Crawly suddenly feels boxed in. He flinches away when Ligur bumps him with his shoulder. All of the transformations added up with the dampness still clinging to his insides has left him sore and tired. He knows he’s got to report back to Beelzebub, but then he wants nothing more than to find a dark, empty corner to curl up and rest. 

“C’mon, Crawly.” Ligur weedles. “What’s got you so chipper?”

“The satisfaction of a job evilly done.” Crawly hisses, sarcastically. 

Hastur sidles up close to him, gripping his elbow. “Got a little secret, Crawly?” His breath stinks of sulfur, and Crawly misses the bright, crisp scents of Earth; the juice of the apple, the rain on soil, the warm floral scent of the angel--

“Don’t make us pull teeth.” Ligur whine, then shrugs. “Although it  _ would  _ be fun.” 

Crawly tenses. There’s two of them, and there’s a lot they could do to him before Beelzebub cared enough to hunt him down--not to mention what Beelzebub would then do to him for being late to report back. He spits out the first thing that comes to his mind. “There was an angel.” He kicks himself at the demons’ reactions, rushes to fix it. “I toyed with him. Stupid thing was naive enough to let me close. Even told me all about how he gave the humans his flaming sword.”

Ligur makes an interested noise, and Hastur releases him. “That’s how they all are Up There.” Hastur spits. “Too good for their own good.”

Ligur laughs, and Crawly does too, forces the sound out as he slips away into the crowds of Hell. It’s nothing like the way he’d laughed on the wall, with the angel whose name he wishes he’d gotten. Nothing at all like that. It dies as soon as Crawly feels safe enough to let it. 

_ He gave it away,  _ Crawly thinks, one last time, before banishing the angel from his thoughts. A creature like that has no place Down Here, and, unlike Lucifer, Crawly refuses to drag anyone down into damnation with him.


End file.
